School Days

It's official, summer is over. I all ready miss having the kids around, but I know they are looking forward to a fun year. They have come home with so much to tell me each day and are so excited for the new year. After a few days mom will adjust and be busy with new projects. I'm about to paint the exterior of the house and then it will be on to the inside! Fun, fun, fun!!

Emily just started today and was very excited to see her friends and make some new ones. Her teacher and I have all ready spoken and she is excited to have Emily in her classroom. It should be a great year for her as well. We have some pretty high goals for her, we just have to convince her she wants to do them!

As for Emily we have some great news. We went into the hospital for an echo cardiogram, basically an ultrasound of the heart. The tech looked for a while and couldn't find the hole in her heart, this means it has closed on it's own! This is one less problem to worry about and now we can go to the dentist without having to take antibiotics before hand!!!

The funny part about this test is that we knocked her out! I gave her some medication to help calm her so she would hold still and it had the opposite affect. She was kicking, scratching and basically doing anything she could do get away for 20 minutes. The nurse gave her another drug and within 5 minutes she was out cold. It usually lasts 20 minutes, but Emily was out for the next 2 1/2 hours! We had to stay there until she was somewhat awake. So it was a pretty long day.

So that's the latest! Enjoy the pictures of our first day. Oh and the one of the wolf spider the size of Kirk's hand! The picture just doesn't do it justice! It was BIG, and there was another one around the corner. Yikes!!!!

Welcome to Holland

This is something I hesitate to share, I don't want it to seem like I'm feeling sorry for myself. This story has helped me put what we face into perspective and I share it in hopes that maybe it will help someone else. We all face challenges and sometimes it's easy to feel like we want to give up. I've learned that no matter what we face, we can make it through and find peace.
Life may not turn out how we expect, but I wouldn't trade what I have leanred or the wonderfuly people I have had the opportunity to meet because of what we faced.

I love you all!!

"Welcome to Holland"By Emily Perl Kingsley, 1987. All rights reserved.I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland

Star gazers

There was a great meteor shower here last night and this morning. We got the kids up at 11pm to watch it, but the moon was too bright. We saw only one in 10 minutes(but it was still cool!). So we put the kids back to bed and decided to try again at 4 am. I guess I was sleeping like a rock so Kirk didn't wake me up at 4. He grabbed the kids and sat out in the driveway for an hour and a half watching all the meteors. The kids were so excited they could hardly contain themselves. There were several meteors ever minute, sorry I missed it. Oh well, it makes me happy just to know they had some quality daddy time! Now they are taking long afternoon naps, which NEVER happens. It's strangely quiet and I'm getting bored!

Well, maybe next year I'll have the determination to get out of bed!

Finally back!

I am back!!! It has been a crazy few weeks!!!! Our computer died two weeks ago and I have been without e-mail and blogging for too long. Blogging is addictive!

A few weeks ago I went away for the weekend, ALONE!! It was our annual girls weekend at the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City Utah. Every year I go off with Kirk's mom, sisters, aunt, cousin and anyone else that wants to join our crazy weekend! We always have a blast and enjoy some much needed girl time.

We ate yummy food, laughed, shopped, laughed, shopped for wedding dresses for Kirk's sister, laughed and saw two great plays. Did I mention laughed?!! It's always a great weekend and I feel so lucky that I get to go every year. (Kirk played with the kids all weekend so don't feel bad for him?)

Here are just a few pictures from my fun weekend away. The first is of my beautiful and wonderful sisters-in-law Kale, Cassie and Miki. I always wanted a sister and now I have three! The other picture was taken at lunch and include Kirk's Aunt Lynn, cousin Jessica and Me! Can't wait to do it again next year!!\

By the way...if you ever get a chance to go the the Utah Shakespearean Festival it is great. I've seen some really great plays over the years!